Chungju Forest Street Martyrdom Shrine

History & origins

Supgeori was a wooded area extending past Muhakdang, a Joseon-period military command post, toward the Chungju stream, and it was also used as an execution ground. After the Sinyu Persecution intensified in 1801, Catholics arrested in various places were taken to Chungju and some were put to death here by beheading or military execution. Supgeori thus became one of the places where the early Catholic community of the Chungju region suffered severe losses under persecution.

The best-known figures connected with the site are Gi-yeon Yi, Bu-chun Yi, and Agi-ryeon Gwon. Yi Gi-yeon embraced Catholicism in the early years of the Korean Church and spread the faith in the Chungju and Yeonpung areas; during the Sinyu Persecution he was arrested and later beheaded at Supgeori. Yi Bu-chun and Gwon Agi-ryeon are likewise remembered as martyrs who refused to abandon their faith. Their witness forms a historical axis for understanding both the spread of Catholicism in Chungju and the price paid by the local community during persecution.

For a long time Supgeori remained primarily a remembered historical site, but in the modern period it was developed as a diocesan shrine. The Diocese of Cheongju proclaimed it a martyr shrine on November 29, 2020, and in November 2023 a memorial to the martyrs and a Stations of the Cross were blessed. Walking pilgrimages by Catholics and Legion of Mary members in the Chungju area have continued, reconnecting the former execution ground and its memory of martyrdom with prayer and pilgrimage today.